Action Asia - February-March 2018

36 

— March/April 2018

mountains are taxing. There’s the obvious need

to climb more of those metres without any

convenient start point on a col or neighbouring

hill to provide a leg-up. Plus, those metres are

gained more abruptly, placing additional emphasis

on your acclimatisation.

This is a common issue on Kilimanjaro.

Though the success rate for summit attempts

is high, this peak’s usual routes pose no real

technical challenges. There is some exposure so

a calm head is needed in the latter stages but it is

essentially just a high hike and should be within

range of almost everyone of reasonable fitness.

The massif has three main cones – Kibo,

Mawenzi and Shira – and many smaller craters.

Kibo is the highest cone and is therefore the focus

for almost all trekkers who make for the highest

A new series of practical guides presents the basics of getting up

some of the most iconic trekkable peaks in the world.

Mt Kilimanjaro (5,895m)

THERE ARE A HANDFUL OF ICONIC

mountains known from a photo alone.

Kilimanjaro – Kili for short – is certainly one. As

Africa’s highest peak, it is one of the famed Seven

Summits, the highest points on each continent. It’s

also often called the world’s highest freestanding

peak for the way it stands supreme and alone,

around 4,900m above its surroundings.

The mountain appears in The Lion King and

the videogame, Halo 3. Toto included it in their

1982 hit song ‘Africa’. It features in countless books

as a symbol of Africa, even as a metaphor in the

case of Hemingway’s classic story, ‘The snows of

Kilimanjaro’, where as the protagonist lies dying,

the summit is the last image that flashes through

his brain, supposed site of his salvation.

So the draw is clear. But hugely prominent

point of all, Uhuru Peak.

There you have the singular experience of

standing on snow close to the Equator. But the

clock is ticking on this: the vast majority of the

ice cover has disappeared in the last century and

the remainder is thought unlikely to last much

beyond 2040.

Choosing a route

Your route is key to your experience, affecting the

cost, acclimatisation pattern, sense of remoteness,

outward views and vegetation zones encountered.

Most packages cost US$1,000-3,000 for a

five-eight day climb. Many climbers look to make

savings by taking the shorter packages but this

is often a false economy, potentially jeopardising

your chance of reaching the summit at all.